This page displays
aesthetic items and structures that were made in Sugar Loaf by a long list of successful resident
artists along with a few examples of outside artists who have maintained a close and
important relationship with the hamlet.

On inception the focus of
the Museum was to be a display of products from former Sugar Loaf Artists of
the not too distant past, works through which those who have gone on to other things
filled the
world with treasures that helped establish Sugar Loaf's long standing reputation as a
tiny Mecca for
excellence in the arts.

However, it soon became apparent that a large number of the
artists here during the hey day are still open for business and doing better than ever, so a smattering of older work
from existing studios is found in the museum as well.

This page serves as an addition to the
Sugar Loaf Historic Photos
(now titled Locations) and satisfies the widespread
request for more details that came after the vaunted publication of the Guild
website with its true insider story of Sugar Loaf.

The stories below and throughout the rest of this
website describe Sugar Loaf: its history, clarity, and logic providing
the rational basis for the ongoing presence of
full time working artists who live and thrive in a true artists community ...
something so rare most people do not even know what the term means.

Lots of people assume they know what an artists
community is, but the term has been so
distorted by marketing firms and branders that one might think every roadside strip mall or mega shopping center or grant driven urban renewal
project is an artists community.

If you are in doubt about the term artists community
(and you should be) read the ten quick stories at
Bobs Corner.

For more about the process which created this page click
the "Show Help" button below, otherwise scroll down and enjoy the images of great
Sugar Loaf art interspersed with narrative descriptions.

For convenience of continuity Guild members have decided
Bob should speak mostly in first person.

Ironically this page quickly became a
history of its own creation in addition to its explanation of "How they did it in Sugar Loaf!"

Anybody who would like to add to the discussion (or
photos) can drop
by the Endico studio and let their feelings be known while gathering up
an e-mail address for submittals.

You can direct people to specific images and database entries on
this page by copy/pasting the URL and adding a hashtag (#)
and the number that is found to the left of the hyphen dash (-) in the ID-Sort above each image.

The shortcut is to add the hashtag (#) and number before
copy/pasting the URL field (at the top of your browser) which lets you test it
before sending.

Following is a dated log of the progress of the Museum moved
here to get it out of the way of the main page.

As of 02/28/15 this page remains a work in progress, but
it is far
enough along to begin feeding important information to Google which as
it turns out is Sugar Loaf, New York's number one fan.

One of the things we are currently working through is
deciding on the final name for the museum.

Clay Boone is in favor of the Sugar Loaf Historic
Museum, Sugar Loaf, New York.

I currently favor the Historic Museum of Sugar Loaf,
New York.

There has also been consideration of Sugar Loaf
Historical Museum, and the Historical Museum of Sugar Loaf, NY.

Likely, outsiders will end up calling it the Sugar Loaf
Museum while inside the hamlet merely The Museum.

As of 03/01/15 it appears Boone has won his way,
and the name of this place is going to be the Sugar Loaf Historical
Museum.

Basically that is because yesterday Bob tasked Mary Endico with designing
a banner and that is what she put on the page banner.

03/02/15: So now the matter is closed because Mary's
sister writes that she likes Sugar Loaf first, as more memorable,
although Historical Museum of Sugar Loaf, New York does sound
more impressive, and Mary's sister was a reader for Orion Pictures (you
know, one of the people who decide what you are going to see in the
movies, and in the past she has introduced us to some very, very famous
people in the film industry), so that is it: Sugar Loaf Historical Museum it is.

Above is the piece by Jon Baugh that got the Sugar Loaf Historical Museum started.

It was gifted to us (on permanent loan actually) by Chuck Lennon who knew it was very special, kept it on view in his private art collection and found it inspirational each and every day for 40 years.

When it was time to downsize Chuck looked up Jon Baugh on the Internet, came across the Sugar Loaf Guild website, and without so much as a specific physical address sent a letter to me care of the Sugar Loaf Guild, Sugar Loaf, New York.

It is not surprising Chuck found this piece so appealing: the composition is extremely well thought out, and there are subtleties in the design to which I can attest (having known Jon) that Mr. Baugh was very much aware and was in total control, not only of the basic composition but the human response as well.

On first glance it appears to be merely found glass, however, I know that Jon spent a great deal of time getting the glass to splinter and shear in just the perfect way for any particular piece he was working on, and many shards were tossed aside to be used more appropriately later in another piece.

There is a great deal of depth in this glass painting, and what I just said about its execution is only the most superficial of explanations.

When the piece was delivered, Mary had to take it apart for a quick restoration (the center marble had fallen off in transit from Texas), and she raved about how nicely it had been constructed and the level of detail that Jon attended to throughout the materials both front and back.

Jon handled the work he was doing on Sugar Loaf promotions with the same care and precision, and there are lots of people living and working in Sugar Loaf today who remain beneficiaries of his fine work in the past.

It is only fitting that Jon provided the impetus (long after his death) for the establishment of the Sugar Loaf Historical Museum.

What a treasure.

Thank you for reminding us, Chuck!

More about the story of this special piece is coming soon, right after I get the rest of the Museum's startup images posted.

Of course there are the two best friends of Jon Baugh, Susan and Richard Logothetis.

When Mary and I arrived in Sugar Loaf (1976), Susan and Richard were coming up on the weekends to stay in a teeny tiny little RV near the end of Romers' Alley (owned by Jon Baugh and as yet unnamed) on the Rosner Soap side.

They knew what we all knew, that Sugar Loaf was (and still is) the primary gathering place for the top creatives in the world.

Eventually Susan and Richard were hosting theater performances in the large ramshackle uppermost room in the red barn at the head of Scotts' Meadow.

I do not know how anything could be closer to the old saw about kids saying, "Let’s clean out the loft in the old barn and make it a clubhouse!"

They went on to start their own theater lighting company which is now one of the world's leading manufacturers and providers of state of the art lighting for arenas, performance theaters, and rock venues.

Back in the day they would show up at the large industry trade shows and rent a booth with their lights in tow, lights that Richard was constantly improving through his inovative enhancements.

And yes, he secured a bunch of Patents on his work.

Their standard presentation process was to watch for somebody on the other side of a large arena presenting a well known big-time lighting system.

Richard would turn his lights in that direction and BLOW them off the wall.

They got a lot of customers that way, and continue to do so today.

You will be hard pressed to find a large venue of any significance in which Lycian Lights are not being used ... with the words "Sugar Loaf" on them.

The name Lycian comes from Richard's Greek heritage and was the original name of the theater they built (years after the barn loft performances) at the south entrance to Sugar Loaf across from White Oak Drive.

Mary tells me the piano is currently priced at $100,000 which seems a little on the low side according to my way of thinking.

There are three (3) of George's pianos (just like the one above) in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

[08/04/2017 update: George's daughter, Marette, dropped by the Endico watercolor studio today and informed us the piano above is now in a private collection in Asheville. It was previously on display in the Smithsonian; and it is, in fact, three models of the piano which remain in the Museum of Modern Art.]

By 1987 Sugar Loaf had firmly established itself as a tiny Mecca for the arts, but it did not do so on its own.

Numerous art and community groups helped in building the Sugar Loaf reputation, and those strongly collaborative organizations were essential.

Shown above is the first Board of Directors of the North East Watercolor Society, but at the moment of the photo the name was still the Orange County Watercolor Society.

As with all community organizations everywhere (in all times), finding committed individuals willing to take on leadership roles was a daunting task.

When Joan Ross agreed to become President she said she would do so only if Mary Endico agreed to become her Vice President and run the annual exhibit.

Mary explained the offer to her husband Bob Fugett (by then her strongest ally and career advisor) who said, "Don't waste your time unless they change the name of the organization to something that will help your resume."

Bob first suggested the National Watercolor Society but found the name was already in use, so he suggested the North East Watercolor Society with the side suggestion, "All the brochures and press releases can proclaim the NEWS!"

Mary reported resistance to a name change among the membership, and Bob replied, "Ok, then don't bother becoming Vice President. You have a career to tend to."

Bob knew that while a rose may smell as sweet by any other name, an organization's name is sweeter when helpful to one's bio.

Mary had already chaired and organized 8 years of Sugar Loaf Crafts Fairs when those were nationally renowned juried events, so the decision to change the name or lose her help as a Board Member and organizer of the national show carried significant weight.

By the time of the photo above Joan Ross and Dick Ochs were firmly in the name change camp, so Mary had agreed to take on the role of Vice President.

Dick went on to register the incorporated name of North East Watercolor Society by the end of that year, and later he would head the organization for many years while being instrumental in bringing it to full status as an annual host of juried International art shows.

NEWS Incorporation, 1987

Therefore Mary Endico is still proud to be associated with the organization.

Speaking of supportive and strongly collaborative art groups, the next 9 images below are from leading artists in both the North East Watercolor Society and the Schunnemunk Art Group. [see: Musem page]

The Schunnemunk group cross-pollinated with NEWS and included more than just watercolors ... in particular great desserts.

Above is one of the earlier Endico Watercolor Studio signs before there became only one kind of fantasy, and the phone calls were getting too weird.

It is another Clay Boone sign, and Clay complained mightily that we were making him keep the letters so small, "... real hard to do with wood and old-timey tools, not to mention getting the gold leaf to adhere."

Our goal was to have the best business and smallest sign in town; you know, like a professional, a lawyer or doctor, somebody with skills who does not have to make such a big deal about it.

Check done.

The name encompased all that Mary and I were doing in our shop down by The Imagination Warehouse in Scotts' Meadow.

A trademark lawyer suggested we change the name used on my music album due to possible conflict with Fantasy Records, so eventually KeyTap was born, and we also dropped the use of Fantasy Factory with Mary's watercolors.

In any case, most of what you will see below are things that I (Bob Fugett) volunteered to put in the front shop at the head of Romers' Alley, then man and maintain as a Sugar Loaf Welcome Center (along with examples, walking maps, and promotional material from all the current studios and retail spaces in Sugar Loaf while 18th Century Furniture offered to donate a roomful of cabinetry).

Of course I would be giving away all my time for free plus personally paying the full rental for the space (at any price, no questions asked, $4,200 cash offered as down payment), and I figured that would help bring the Alley up to the standard of the rest of the hamlet (making it once again a full Sugar Loaf community member in good standing).

People were lining up to be part of it, but the slumlord owner figured his real-estate investment scam would do better without the clear light of truth being shone on it.

So off he went with his cohorts back into the seamy darkness of their tawdry trailer-park Disney trinkets trade which the Romers' Alley high-crime area has become so accustomed.

I had several things stolen during the two weeks I spent on the Romers' Alley porch ... something I was clearly not prepared for, having never previously experienced anything remotely like it in Sugar Loaf, and I have been here nearly 40 years.

In any case, see all the wonderful stuff below that otherwise happens elsewhere (and forever) throughout the rest of Sugar Loaf.

I have to tell you, Stan Ehrenberg (whose photo is shown above) had some massive skills and credentials.

Before coming to Sugar Loaf he had the largest photography studio on Long Island, and between there and Sugar Loaf, Stan and his wife Peggy had the biggest framing, art, and photography business in the Orange Plaza Mall, Middletown.

We learned a lot from Stan and still repeat many of his words of wisdom daily.

There are timeless observations about business that stand the test of time.

Things that were true yesterday, are true today, and will be ever more true tomorrow.

That is not to say many people want to hear about them, nor are they likely to act on the wisdom once heard.

Does anybody know why so many people who fail at business in Sugar Loaf (because they just won't listen) always end up on a barstool at the Barnsider spouting endless litanies about all the things the rest of us (who are succeeding) are doing wrong, how much they know about marketing, how they could fix things for us if we would just let them, etc.

Sure wish Stan would come back and set them straight, "Get off that barstool; spend your day working not drinking; make something nice, and build a following."

Problem is all that takes time and commitment.

Sugar Loaf is not broken and does not need fixing.

Ask any of the successful Sugar Loaf artists ... there are lots of them.

Business card of former Scott's Meadow business received by Mary Endico from the hand of Bob Wills (owner) on 09/11/2016 in her studio Sugar Loaf, New York.

From the Sunrise Trading Post website:

It is with pride that part of the growth of Sunrise Trading Post was helped along by the award winning movie "Dances with Wolves", for I was asked to paint all the imitation eagle feathers for this wonderful movie.

I almost forgot how famous we all were (and still are).

It is always exciting to have Sugar Loaf old timers drop by, in this case we had not seen Bob since circa 1978 (38 years ago) when his shop was in Scott's Meadow across from Fantasy Factory (the name of the Endico studio at that time).

Actually, despite the confusion on the photo caption, that door was made in the 1980's for sure, some time after Nick, Betty, Mary and I had our little conversation with Richard in the Barnsider, just before Mary and I were leaving for our Thailand vacation in 1983.

The discussion was about how it might be ok for those of us in town to bad mouth each other, but outsiders like Richard were absolutely positively never permitted to speak about us that way.

Eventually Richard became a Sugar Loaf insider, so I find myself in the odd position of having to say nice things about him so many years later.

Yes, the stained glass above was designed by Mary Endico and executed by Karen Lorenzo (our neighbor at the time), but the bathroom tile work and window construction is my own (Bob Fugett) circa sometime when I was a kid.

But just because he was famous, it didn't mean that anybody knew who he was, and Mary and I used to get real tired of taking time out of building our own reputations to explain to people who Eric was, still ...

Here is an old brochure (made by Jon Baugh for the Guild) that shows Eric signing authographs.

When Bob Fugett and Mary Endico arrived in Sugar Loaf, the Wayside Gallery was doing a brisk business operated by Jim Madigan who also owned the building across from today's Endico watercolor studio. Later the building housed Rob Wright pottery and sculpture studio. Later still it was Sym's Jewelry and mineral shop, and as of this writing (Nov. 17, 2016) it is Pisces Passions wherin lies Ada Hunter's art studio.

At the time of Wayside Gallery, Jeannie Paulson had her batik studio behind today's Endico studio, in what is now the Sugar Loaf Gallery and Frameshop (who actually provided the frame for the batik house portrait while their business was still in the basement below Jeannie's Fabncadabra).

As part of their 1976 introduction to Sugar Loaf, Bob and Mary would often interview Jim Madigan about what he found worked and did not work in Sugar Loaf.

Forty years later they still remember their debt of gratitude for Jim's sound business advice that has held them in good stead.

One would think that all new businesses coming to Sugar Loaf would spend some time walking around and questioning the already long standing successful businesses.

We are still trying to track down an example of Walter's wife Marcia's incredible dough art. Mary Endico had done some things in that medium when we first came to Sugar Loaf, but on taking a look at the first piece of Marcia's work said, "That's it. I'm done. No way to compete with that!"